I think he is a robot

I am not really sure if Riggs is as much a dog as he is a robot.  Riggs is all about routine and schedule and never deviates from it.  Nothing ever changes.  His internal clock goes off at various times of the day or after certain order of events.

Riggs Schedule (Weekday)

• Wake up at 6:15 am and begin pestering Dada (aka lick lick lick lick) to wake up and feed me.  Proceed to do this for the next 45min to an hour till Dada cannot take it any longer and gets out of bed.
• Run downstairs as fast as I can and run around in circles as I wait impatiently for Dada to get my food ready.
• Stand there and whine and jump on Dada because he is taking way too long to get my food ready.
• Inhale my food as fast as I can, licking every last morsel from in the bowl and all around the bowl.
• Run back upstairs and grab a stuffed animal ready to play.  Begin whining if no one will pay attention and play with me.
• Go for a walk outside around the neighborhood, sniff all the light poles, bushes and as many grass piles as I can get away with dragging Dada to.
• Pee 3 – 4 times.
• Poo twice.
• Wait for Dada to give me a treat back at home.
• Lay down and begin sad pouty face to make Dada feel guilty for leaving me home as he leaves for work.
• Stand at door waiting for Mama to enter coming home from work.
• Run over and grab Angry Face or Pink Eye stuffed animal ready to play.
• Go outside and pee but then stand around and not poo.  I want to eat!!!
• Stand there and whine and jump on Mama because she is taking way too long to get my food ready.
• Inhale my food as fast as I can, licking every last morsel from in the bowl and all around the bowl.
• Run back upstairs and grab a stuffed animal ready to play.  Begin whining if no one will pay attention and play with me.
• Lay down next to Mama.
• Run to door when I hear garage door open and stand there waiting for Dada to enter coming home from work.
• Run over and grab Angry Face or Pink Eye stuffed animal ready to play.
• Go outside and finally poo and pee again.
• Stand under the table and lick lick lick lick Dada’s legs as he eats dinner.
• At 7:30pm, begin sitting or standing and staring at Mama and Dada waiting for one of them to get up and go get me a carrot out of the frig.  FINALLY at 8pm I get my carrot.
• Make a complete mess breaking my carrot up into tiny pieces and then eat it.
• Grab a stuffed animal and stand at the bottom of the stairs waiting for Mama to go upstairs to crawl into bed.
• Lay in bed and suck on Paris Hilton’s nose.
• Chew on my Nylabone.
• Play tug-a-war with one of my stuffed animals with Mama.
• Fall asleep.
• Act like dead weight and pretend I am sleeping when Dada comes to bed and wants to take me outside one last time.
• Pee once.
• Go over to Dada when he crawls into bed and begin lick lick lick licking him.
• After getting pushed away 4-5 times I finally give up and fall back asleep waiting for 6:15am to arrive to start it all over again.

Let me sleep Riggs!

Uuuugh!!!  This new dog food is my worst nightmare.  Ever since Riggs started on his new dog food that he thinks is the best thing ever created he can not wait to eat.  Now every morning starting around 6:30am, he starts pacing on the bed and sitting there staring at you.  Every slight move you make he runs over to you thinking/hoping you are getting up out of bed to feed him.

The entire time you are opening the can, dishing into his bowl, chopping it up he is down there whining: "Can you see I am starving down here Dada?"

Same routine occurs in the evening starting around 5pm as well.  Curse this damm dog food.

Chew it. Don't inhale it

It would be an understatement for me to say that Riggs LOVES his new dog food.  I don't think it is in the bowl long enough for him to taste it.  Giving him his various pills is once again a piece of cake.  We just hide it in the food and he inhales it so fast he does not know they are in there.  He licks the bowl clean.  When he is done you can barely tell that the bowl has ever been used.

Dog food over treats?

When I leave for work I give Riggs a treat.  Today Riggs had no interest in his treat so I just laid it on top of his bowl of dog food so he can eat it later.  When I got home tonight I noticed something strange with his food bowl.  He ate all his dog food but left the treat in there.  Apparently it is time to find some new treats.  Riggs appears to be burnt out on the pumpkin animal cracker treats.

Riggs turns 2

Happy 2nd Birthday to Riggs.  He had a tough day of going to the park, visiting grandparents, picking out toys at Petsmart and getting "soft" dog food for dinner.

Picky eater

Riggs is on another food trial.  This time it is rabbit and potato.  He must hate this food because he has gone almost two full days without eating.  So we decided to poor some carrot juice over it and add some peas and carrots.  He hates the food so much he spent the time and effort to dig through the food dodging the actual dog food and eating the peas and carrots only.  Ugh!!!

That explains all the hair loss

The allergy dilemma continues.  Still no signs of the itching going away and the post from a couple of weeks ago about the shedding is more than likely related to the allergies as well.  Riggs is now starting to show signs from the hair loss on his undercarriage area. 

We are starting to do some additional test to see if something else might be causing the issues.  Today we got his thyroid tested and that came back normal.  We have switched him to a different food trial as well.  Vet thinks it might be a protein based allergy so no meat products at all now.  Soybean and vegetables dry dog food.  I am sure that will be tasty.  NOT.

Happy 1st Birthday

Riggs turns 1 today.  Mama made a chocolate cake for the kids and adults and Riggs got a carrot and some wet vegetarian food, yummy!  Some family came over to celebrate and Riggs got some toy balls and of course MORE stuffed animals.

I didn't know we owned a rabbit

So with Riggs into his food trial now, we needed to figure out something we could give to him as a treat.  Most of the treats we found at the pet store were off limits.  The vet suggested carrots.  We got a bag of carrots and sure enough he likes them.  I am now just waiting for Riggs to grow some long pointy ears and a bushy tail.

Itchy & Scratchy

Riggs continues to itch and scratch himself nonstop.  He primarily scratches his black muzzle area.  We are thinking he might have a food allergy and the vet has recommended we start him on a food trial to see if he gets better.  So sorry bud no more tasty beef flavored dry dog food.  Sweet potatoes and veal instead.